Cal State East Bay To Create School of Arts and Media

The College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences is taking a major step toward promoting and enhancing the arts and media through creation of a new school at Cal State East Bay.

Recently approved by President Leroy M. Morishita, the School of Arts and Media will be composed of the departments of art, communication, music, theatre and dance and the Multimedia Graduate Program, and is expected to open in September 2013.

Grouping the five disciplines into one school will provide opportunities for greater collaboration in interdisciplinary curricular development and artistic production, increased use of innovative instructional models and developing technologies, and enhanced marketing and recruitment, said Dean Kathleen Rountree of CLASS.

"CSU East Bay has always had strong arts and media programs," said James Houpis, provost and vice president of academic affairs. "By creating a School of Arts and Media we hope to not only attract the best and brightest students but also provide a home for innovative faculty and a forward-thinking curriculum that serves our area and the nation."

Rountree emphasized the benefits of the new school to students, faculty and the community, noting that "... as a society, we express our identity, our values, our fears and our aspirations through the communicative and expressive arts; graduates with skills in these areas are more important to our society than ever before.

“In a world filled with the possibilities of new technology and global communications, this school will be ideally positioned to prepare students for both the present and the future."